Easywarm (Swalec)for over 50's ends next week

shwn29

I signed for easywarm in November 2005 and in the small print I discovered in clause 3.1c that the consumption of gas and electricity shall not exceed 35,000Kwhs per year. My monthly debit for a single person with two bedrooms would be £42.
I have now received the latest information-Gas 26,750 Kwhs and Electric 3,750Kwhs making a total of 30,500 with a raise in price of £5 per month.
This means that I have lost 4,500Kwhs and paying £60 per year extra!
And it is only three months into the venture!
I must admit though that the summer months will more than make up for any heavy usage and following my weekly check up on the usage I find that I am well within the target.

lyntwyn

Thank you Graham1 for pointing me towards para 3.1c which sets out the original usage limits - in very small print! I had not picked that up despite searching thoroughly for the info. If they are going to make changes in-year like this it will be impossible for people like me who signed on in May 2005 to monitor usage effectively. Unless they wipe the slate clean as at 1st feb and restart from here but my year end is still May!! I can see that it makes sense to set different limits by property/occupancy . It will be interesting when they reply to my query regarding ofsetting over/under usage of gas against electricity. e.g. since May I have used 27000 wkh of gas but only 5100 of electricity. So I may exceed my gas quota but will be well below Electricity limit by next May.I assume they must have a policy on this.

lyntwyn

Further to my earlier posting I wrote to Swalec,- infact I wrote to them twice and emailed them twice, before at last receiving a reply today, four weeks later! However they declined to comment on my main query which was regarding the way they would deal with customers who overused one type of fuel and underused the other- whether they would be offsetting one against the other. They merely stated that on my present consumption I am unlikely to exceed my limits NEXT year, no comment as to whether the new lower limits will apply to me during the current year (my annual contract renews in May). All quite pathetic really. One point they did make was that while electricity meters are already in kwh, to convert gas readings to kwh the unit reading from meter should be multiplied by 31.13.
I can foresee a lot of people having arguments with Swalec over Easywarm in due course.

Graham1

Yes, the only way I can see them realistically applying the new limits is after meter readings a whole year apart with both readings having been made after 1'st Feb 2006. So the longer the time that elapses until the first meter reading after that date the better.

shwn29

I received this latest announcement this morning.
Prices will be going up - e.g. what I was paying at the very beginning - 1 member household with two bedrooms -£42
Then up to £47
Now up again to £59! a monthly rise of £12!

Graham1

Yes, approx 24 to 25% increase across the board.

Quite a shock.

Still cheaper than staywarm, however.

timsuenpt

Well it's been 4 years since I started this thread so I thought an update was in order. This morning 15th Nov 2010 I received a letter from SWALEC telling me of the new pricing for the Easywarm deal ...

.................1 Bedroom...2 Bedroom...3 Bedroom...4 Bedroom
1 person .......£87.51........£109.40......£127.16...... £129.90
2 people....... £109.40 ......£131.27 .....£150.42 .....£158.62
3 people .......£110.76 ......£147.67 .....£165.46 .....£172.29
4 people .......£117.60 ......£154.51 .....£175.03 .....£183.22

So since I 1st posted this thread my bill has gone from £57 a month to £131.27 a month. I've been tempted several times to cancel my account and look elsewhere, but would I be jumping from the frying pan into the fire. So any advice would be very grateful.

PS.. my wife is now over sixty so if there is a better deal for pensioners please let me know.

Cheers Guys
Tim

st999

How much electricity, in kWh, have you been using in a year?

If I paid £131.27 per month that would give me 15750 kWh a year.

Joyful

I would get your usage and post it on a comparison chart. Just for good measure add 10% on top in case of price rises and see if that beats the Staywarm prices.